Welcome
to the very first edition of Self-reflection Sundays! The back story to this series would be quite a feat to include all in one edition but hopefully from
week to week we will go over a little snippet of the story and discuss the
progress or ambitions that have arisen since!

So to start at the beginning...

There
comes a point in everyone’s life where your peers, elders maybe your neighbour,
or even a stranger asks you that dreaded question “So what next?” This question
can be posed in a number of ways: “So what do you do?”, “Have you decided what A-levels
you're doing?”, “Have you chosen a University?”, “Have you got a job yet?”, “What
do you want to do with your life?”… the choices are endless, but at some point,
every one of us, will be asked the very same life determining, all defining, path
deciding question “…what now?”

The
troubling thing is, I don’t think many of us really know. We get by from day to
day doing whatever comes up next and for some of us that can leave mean doing nothing.

We
dread that ominous question which can be so frustrating, demotivating and even
embarrassing to have to answer with “I don’t know”, or even worse to put
forward your maybe less conventional ideas or high reaching dreams that people
are so ready to put down.

I’ve
lost count of the times I’ve answered this question, it’s been so many now I’ve
written and rehearsed speeches to “explain” myself to minimize the disapproving
thoughts from others.

Fortunately
for me my recent life (ahem to be accurate the last decade!) has been filled with
studies so I’ve had the opportunity to say “well I’ve still got a year to go,
so I’m still figuring things out”, “I need to study at a higher level to get
the career I want” (twice), and “oh well the university offered me a part-time
contract so you know I’m using the rest of the time to look over my options and
make sure I choose the best next move in my career”.

But
really…I’m thinking…

WHY
DO I HAVE TO CHOOSE??!!

In
reality almost all of us don’t know what we want to do and the few that do are
very lucky! This goes for everything not just careers, but personal choices,
lifestyle choices, everything can get a battering.

For
me however, it wasn’t so much a case of finding something I wanted to do, but
more that I just found it so difficult to choose between all my ridiculously
wide-ranging interests.

My
bucket list reads more like a bucket novel with ambitions ranging from get my
pilots license, to play a role in a Hollywood movie, all the way to become a
well known Psychologist! Luckily there are a few smaller things on there too
which I’m slowly ticking off (more on that later!), but my point is – Choosing
is hard, possible one of the hardest things you, or I, or anyone will ever do,
and that’s a lot of pressure.

(Just
to be clear I definitely don’t have things all figured out yet!)

But
the biggest revelation a person can ever have is that “you don’t have to
choose!” I came to realize this only a few short months ago. It’s not an easy
thing to say, I mean really? I don’t have to choose? I can do everything?

Well,
the simple answer is yes.

I’m
not going to say it’s all so easy because it’s not, and hopefully we will
come to that in future editions to this series, but the real message I want to
get across today is that yes, if you really are passionate about so many things
that’s ok, and with the right mind set and some confidence in yourself you can
do everything you hope to, maybe just not all at once!

Knowing
this won’t make it easier when people still ask you that dreaded question,
but if you stand your ground and if you truly believe it in your heart, you can
do amazing things, and if you have the write people surrounding you (bloggers
included!) they will support you.

It
will still take hard work, commitment and probably a lot of bumps in the road
but if you really want it you’ll get through it, and if it turns out not be to be quite what you imagined, well you just
learnt something really important about yourself.

Over
the last few months I’ve been doing just that, I’ve found out more about
myself, my ambitions and my convictions than in my whole 20 cough something
years of existence and over the next few weeks I’m going to share with you my
story.

I’m
not going to pretend everything is all sorted out, because it’s a work in
progress, but I’ve started to learn the tips and tools to manage pursuing a lot
of my dreams (start a blog – check!), and in turn I’ve really built my
confidence, improved my overall self-esteem and more importantly I’m so much
happier for it!

We’ll
be covering a ton of topics on self-reflection, gaining confidence, taking
risks and really figuring out what you want from life, but if there’s anything
you’re really dying to cover, anything at all leave a comment in the box below
and I’ll do my best to include it in the series.

I’d
love to hear your dreams and ambitions too! It would be great to get a
discussion going and share our experience!

I
think that’s enough for this week but please make sure you come back
again next Sunday, where we’ll be talk about how to focus those dreams and I’ll
be giving you more of a back story on the choices I thought I had to make and
how I’m now choosing to do them all!

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About Post Author

Thea is an Academic, a Crafter and a Musician from the West coast of Wales. She documents her trials and tribualtions as she wanders the maze of challenges that life presents, all while travelling the world and pursuing her dreams.